Preface

This guide tells how to configure and manage Enterprise Volume Management System (EVMS). EVMS is a storage management program that provides a single framework for managing and administering your system's storage.

This guide is intended for Linux system administrators and users who are responsible for setting up and maintaining EVMS.

For additional information about EVMS or to ask questions specific to your distribution, refer to the EVMS mailing lists. You can view the list archives or subscribe to the lists from the EVMS Project web site.

The following table shows how this guide is organized:

Table 1. Organization of the EVMS User Guide

Chapter or appendix titleContents
1. What is EVMS?Discusses general EVMS concepts and terms.
2. Using the EVMS interfacesDescribes the three EVMS user interfaces and how to use them.
3. The EVMS log file and error data collectionDiscusses the EVMS information and error log file and explains how to change the logging level.
4. Viewing compatibility volumes after migratingTells how to view existing files that have been migrated to EVMS.
5. Obtaining interface display detailsTells how to view detailed information about EVMS objects.
6. Adding and removing a segment managerDiscusses segments and explains how to add and remove a segment manager.
7. Creating segmentsExplains when and how to create segments.
8. Creating containersDiscusses containers and explains when and how to create them.
9. Creating regionsDiscusses regions and explains when and how to create them.
10. Creating drive linksDiscusses the drive linking feature and tells how to create a drive link.
11. Creating snapshotsDiscusses snapshotting and tells how to create a snapshot.
12. Creating volumesExplains when and how to create volumes.
13. FSIMs and file system operationsDiscusses the standard FSIMs shipped with EVMS and provides examples of adding file systems and coordinating file checks with the FSIMs.
14. Clustering operationsDescribes EVMS clustering and how to create private and shared containers.
15. Converting volumesExplains how to convert EVMS native volumes to compatibility volumes and compatibility volumes to EVMS native volumes.
16. Expanding and shrinking volumesTells how to expand and shrink EVMS volumes with the various EVMS user interfaces.
17. Adding features to an existing volumeTells how to add additional features, such as drive linking, to an existing volume.
18. Selectively activating volumes and objectsExplains how to selectively activate and deactive volumes and options.
19. Mounting and unmounting volumes from within EVMS.Tells how to have EVMS mount and unmount volumes so you do not have to open a separate terminal session.
20. Plug-in operations tasksDiscusses the plug-in tasks that are available within the context of a particular plug-in.
21. Deleting objectsTells how to safely delete EVMS objects.
22. Replacing objectsTells how to change the configuration of a volume or storage object.
23. Moving segment storage objectsDiscusses how to use the move function for moving segments.
A. The DOS plug-inProvides details about the DOS plug-in, which is a segment manager plug-in.
B. The MD region managerExplains the Multiple Disks (MD) support in Linux that is a software implementation of RAID.
C. The LVM plug-inTells how the LVM plug-in is implemented and how to perform container operations.
D. The LVM2 plug-inTells how the LVM2 plug-in is implemented and how to perform container operations on LVM2 containers.
E. The CSM plug-inExplains how the Cluster Segment Manager (CSM) plug-in is implemented and how to perform CSM operations.
F. JFS file system interface moduleProvides information about the JFS FSIM.
G. XFS file system interface moduleProvides information about the XFS FSIM.
H. ReiserFS file system interface moduleProvides information about the ReiserFS FSIM.
I. Ext-2/3 file system interface moduleProvides information about the Ext-2/3 FSIM.
J. OpenGFS file system interface moduleProvides information about the OpenGFS FSIM.
K. NTFS file system interface moduleProvides information about the NTFS FSIM.